Success Stories
Pushing Boundaries
Amanda's Story
Amanda’s mother often waited for "the phone call" to say her daughter was dead of an overdose.
All that changed when Amanda came to live at Boys Town. Not sure what to expect, Amanda was surprised to find that the Family-Teachers at Boys Town fully embraced the girls in their care as family. And to Amanda’s delight, “Those girls turned into my sisters. We all keep in touch to this day.”
Her Family-Teachers and school teachers pushed her to develop into the capable person they could see inside the angry young girl. Now Amanda owns her own business and works for both the NFL and the NBA! She credits her Family-Teachers with her amazing transformation.
“They take kids that have no hope, and they give us hope."
Amanda: So we're at the Saints facility today. Saints played yesterday so what my job is, is to make sure what we call recovery Mondays.
As you look around, the first banner you see is when the Saints won the Super Bowl, so "Who dat?"
Just looking back as the dark place I was coming from to where I am now, a business owner and then also working for the NFL, and the NBA, especially as a woman. I'm extremely proud from where I've come to where I am now.
Growing up, I was pretty normal. Then when I was 12, my parents divorced. My dad went his own way, and my mom was left to raise us. It was a really dark time before I did go to Boys Town, with the drugs and just always fighting with her and lying to her and running away. She didn't know if she was gonna get a phone call and find out I was dead and OD'd or somebody kidnapped me. Because there was no telling what I was doing. We were looking for opportunities for me to turn my life back around, which is where Boys Town kind of came into play.
My mom's very grateful for Boys Town. She always tells me that they gave her her daughter back.
They really had us embrace the family aspect of it. So those girls turned into my sisters. We all keep in touch to this day. We're just a big family still. They pushed me. They were, like, "Hey, you know, we see what you're capable of."I was the wrestling cheerleader, I was on the student council. They pushed me to run for mayor. I wound up becoming the mayor for my senior year, which was really cool.
I guess what I learned there was the grit. Like, okay, you're gonna make a mistake, but what are we gonna do to turn this around? How are we gonna use this to our advantage? What can we learn from it? And what can we do to grow from that?" And I tried to instill that. You know, that's what Boys Town taught me, and I try to instill that on my own two kids.
My Family-Teachers, they still reach out to us, they still keep in touch with us. Even after Hurricane Katrina, we had no place to live. Amy and Eric, they were with Boys Town in Rhode Island, and they had us go live with them for a couple of months. That family was still there even though they weren't my blood. But yeah, they are still there, that's like my second mom and dad.
It just showed that they don't forget about us after we graduate. They still care, they still want to see us succeed.
If I've fallen down, they've been there to help me build back up. And that's something I'll forever be grateful for.
They help take kids that have no hope, and they give us hope.
